With state in hock, Saugus wary of overspending

SAUGUS – With the state borrowing funds to pay its communities, Town Manager Andrew Bisignani said despite a growing pile of requests, he won’t be backing any superfluous spending.Bisignani said he plans to call a special Town Meeting for Oct. 27 to tie up loose ends with the budget, deal with water rates and move around some small appropriations.What he won’t be doing, he said, is supporting the special interest articles, most of which have a price tag attached.There is an article seeking $75,000 for Youth and Recreation, another seeking $80,000 for furniture for the schools and yet another from the Historical Commission asking for funding for a town-wide anthropological survey.On top of the that, Tree Committee Chairman Tim Hawkes made a formal request Thursday to have the committee’s annual $10,000 appropriation reinstated. The appropriation was halted around 2000 due to budget constraints.Bisignani said the whole thing, the financial requests coupled with the state’s announcement that it must borrow $1.3 billion has him on edge.”If the governor gets 9C powers and has to reduce expenditures, I’m sure it will fall on the backs of the cities and towns,” he said. “We’re very close to stability so this makes me very nervous.”Section 9C of the Massachusetts General Laws governs state finances and deals with revenue deficiencies. It details what authority the governor has over actions taken to balance the budget when revenues fall short of spending.Bisignani is not the only town official with an eye on the town’s wallet. Selectman Michael Kelleher said he, too, is concerned that in the wake of the stock market fluctuations and the state’s shortfall, the country, or at the very least the state, could be headed into a depression.Kelleher said he suspected that once the Kasabuski Arena sublease was settled even more requests for funding would begin cropping up.The deal to sublease the ice rink was signed last week, but the town will only receive $150,000 up front. That leaves a significant deficit, roughly $700,000 that the town will have to absorb. Bisignani said he does have the money for it due to surplus funds in the healthcare account, but it means there is no windfall for the town.Kelleher said even if there were excess funds, he believes it should go into the town’s stabilization funds.”I’m not on Town Meeting so I don’t make this decision,” he said. “But I’ll certainly be there to speak on the issue.”Kelleher said while the town needs to keep up on what he calls “the big three,” education, public safety and town-wide services, he doesn’t consider $10,000 for trees or $75,000 for the Youth and Recreation Department, with no plan attached, to be of imminent need.”I feel bad about the $10,000 for trees,” he said. “The Tree Committee have big hearts and that’s great but financially we can’t afford their passion.”Bisignani said he plans to call for the special Town Meeting during the Board of Selectmen’s next public meeting, which will be in October.